Effects of various training modalities on blood volume

Abstract

It is controversially discussed whether soccer games should be played at moderate (2001–3000 m) and high altitudes (3001–5500 m) or should be restricted to near sea level and low altitude (501–2000 m) conditions. Athletes living at altitude are assumed to have a performance advantage compared with lowlanders. One advantage of altitude adaptation concerns the expansion of total hemoglobin mass (tHb‐mass), which is strongly related to endurance performance at sea level. Cross‐sectional studies show that elite athletes posses ∼35% higher tHb‐mass than the normal population, which is further elevated by 14% in athletes native to altitude of 2600 m. Although the impact of this huge tHb‐mass expansion on performance is not yet investigated for altitude conditions, lowland athletes seek for possibilities to increase tHb‐mass to similar levels. At sea level tHb‐mass is only moderately influenced by training and depends more on genetic predisposition. Altitude training in contrast, using either the conventional altitude training or the live high–train low (>14 h/day in hypoxia) protocol for 3–4 weeks above 2500 m leads to mean increases in tHb‐mass of 6.5%. This increase is, however, not sufficient to close the gap in tHb‐mass to elite athletes native to altitude, which may be in advantage when tHb‐mass has the same strong influence on aerobic performance at altitude as it has on sea level.